ai4bharat/Pralekha huggingface dataset:
Prime Minister's Office
PM talks to Mizoram CM and takes stock of forest fire situation
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi talked to Mizoram Chief Minister, Mr. Zoramthanga today and took stock of the situation arising due to forest fires in parts of the state.
In a tweet, Shri Modi said “spoke to Mizoram CM, Mr. Zoramthanga and took stock of the situation arising due to forest fires in parts of the state. Assured all possible support from the Centre in overcoming this crisis. We all pray for the safety and wellbeing of the people of Mizoram.”
Ministry of Railways
Parcel Trains brings revenue for Railways; 54,292 Tonnes of consignments have been loaded since it's start in Lockdown period and the earnings have been Rs 19.77 crores
Total number of parcel trains cross 2000; The total numbers of trains run till 05.05.2020 is 2,067, out of which 1,988 have been time-tabled trains
Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry recently held a meeting to bring E-Commerce and logistics companies closer to Railways
Indian Railways has made parcel vans available for quick transportation of essential items in small parcel sizes to supplement the supply chain during lockdown
Transportation of essential items like medical supplies, medical equipment, food, etc in small parcel sizes is going to be very important during the lockdown in the wake of COVID19. In order to fill in this vital need, Indian Railways has made railway parcel vans available for quick mass transportation by E-Commerce entities and other customers including State governments. Railways have decided to run time-tabled Parcel Special trains on select routes, to ensure uninterrupted supply of essential items.
Zonal Railways are regularly identifying and notifying routes for these Parcel Special trains. Presently these trains are being operated on eighty-two  routes. These routes have been identified to include:
i) Regular connectivity between major cities of the country, viz Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, & Hyderabad.
ii) Connectivity from state-capitals/important cities to all parts of the state.
iii) Ensuring connectivity to the North-eastern part of the country.
iv) Supply of milk and dairy products from surplus regions  to high demand regions.
v) Supply of other essential items  from producing regions to other parts of the country.
This enhanced running of parcel trains of the Railways is to be seen in the context to ramping up the freight operations in the country by making efforts to make it faster, customised and profitable for all.
Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry recently held a meeting to bring Ecommerce and logistics companies closer to Railways.
On 05.05.2020, 66 Parcel Special trains were run out of which 65 were time-tabled trains. 1,936 Tonnes of material was loaded, giving an earning of Rs 57.14 lacs to Railways.
The total number of trains run till 05.05.2020 is 2,067, out of which 1,988 have been time-tabled trains. 54,292 Tonnes of consignments have been loaded, and the earnings have been Rs 19.77 crores.
Prime Minister's Office
PM pays tributes to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on his Jayanti
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has paid rich tributes to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on his Jayanti. The Prime Minister called him a pathbreaking thinker and intellectual whose role in the freedom struggle is inspiring.
In a tweet, the Prime Minister said:
“Tributes to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on his Jayanti. A pathbreaking thinker and intellectual, his role in the freedom struggle is inspiring. He was passionate about the education sector and worked to further brotherhood in society.”
Ministry of Road Transport & Highways
National Road Safety Board
Section 215B of the Motor Vehicles  Act, 2019 provides for constitution of National Road Safety Board to advice the Central Government or State Government, as the case may be, on all aspects pertaining to road safety and traffic management including, but not limited to,
 the standards of design, weight, construction, manufacturing process, operation and maintenance of motor vehicles and of safety equipment;
 the registration and licensing of motor vehicles;
 the formulation of standards for road safety, road infrastructure and control of traffic;
 the facilitation of safe and sustainable utilisation of road transport ecosystem;
 the promotion of new vehicle technology;
 the safety of vulnerable road users;
 programmes for educating and sensitising drivers and other road users; and
 such other functions as may be prescribed by the Central Government from time to time.
Accordingly, the Ministry has notified constitution of the National Road Safety Board along with Rules thereof on 3rd September, 2021.
The rules empowers the board to constitute as many Technical Working Groups as it may consider necessary for the efficient discharge of its functions.
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways , has initiated a World Bank funded project namely e-Detailed Accident Report  ) with support of Indian Institute of Technology , Madras and National Informatics Centre Services Incorporated  to establish a uniform accident data collection mechanism in the Country. The purpose of this project is to establish a central repository for reporting, management and analysis of road accidents data across the Country to understand the causal factors of the accident and formulate interventions and policies to facilitate reduction in road accidents.
This information was given by the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
Ministry of Home Affairs
Union Home Secretary holds a high-level meeting to review streamlining of infrastructure at Delhi airport
Union Home Secretary held a high-level meeting in New today with the major stakeholders to review streamlining of infrastructure at Delhi airport. The Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation; Chairman, AAI; DG, BCAS; Bureau of Immigration, Delhi Police, DIAL GMR and security agencies attended the meeting.
The meeting was informed that a steady ramping up of capacities had taken place since the last review meeting held on 15 December 2022. Many important steps have been taken such as:
- Close monitoring and revised scheduling of air slots has reduced incidents of bunching of flights.
- To facilitate quicker immigration, additional counters have been made functional along with posting of adequate manpower. Baggage scanners have been increased by doubling up the capacity in domestic bay. Immigration counter area has been de-cluttered.
- Delhi Police has increased deployment for the traffic lane management.
It was also informed that on the basis of a Stakeholder Committee evaluation, the DIAL GMR has revised a modern layout plan for the Immigration Bay. This is likely to be completed in three months, without causing any disruptions in the present immigration clearance time. The proposal includes setting up of Documentation and Biometrics booths in Walkways to avoid cluttering in the Immigration Bay.
Union Home Secretary assured to coordinate and requested the stakeholders to maintain the pace in streamlining the departure and arrivals in Delhi airports.
Ministry of Culture
Governor Smt. Tamilisai Soundararajan inaugurates Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav at Warangal
Culture Unites us, RSM symbol of Unity in Diversity says Governer
Union Minister of Culture, Tourism & DoNER Sh. G. Kishan Reddy to take part in the RSM activities tommorow in Warangal
Telangana Governor Smt. Tamilisai Soundararajan inaugurated the two-day cultural festival ‘Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav’ at Warangal today. Speaking at the inaugural function, the Governor said that conserving our culture and heritage promotes unity among people. Saying that conducting festivals like Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsavs help artists and artisans to demonstrate their craftmanship. This Mahotsav is a big opportunity for traditional performing artists and craftsmen to come under one roof to showcase their talent, she said.
The RSM is a platform for performance & exhibition of rare and near extinct art & craft forms. This Mahotsav is a big opportunity for traditional Performing Artists and Craft persons to come under one roof to showcase their talent. It is a symbol of Unity in Diversity and cultural harmony with artists and artisans from all over India.
As India is celebrating 75 years of its Independence, Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Governor said it is the right opportunity to recall the sacrifices of our freedom fighters and rededicate ourselves for nation’s building. She inagurated an exhibition on Prominent Telugu freedom fighters organised by the Regional Outreach Bureau, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on the occasion.
The Mahotsav had an auspicious beginning with the performance by local artists and choreographed folk performances. Various programmes of music performances by Hyderabad Brothers , Padmshri awardee Shri Darsham Mogulaiah, Shri Vande Matram Shrinivas, Ms. Mangali, playback singer and others are slated. The classical dance performance by Padma Shri awardee Dr. K Padmaja Reddy is also scheduled.Folk artists perform impromptu throughout the day either on the stage or among the public
Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav was conceptualised by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India in 2015 and aims to celebrate the spirit of tradition, culture, heritage and diversity of our incredible country. Apart from the broader objective, this Mahotsav aims to preserve, promote and popularise the heritage of Indian spirit and reconnect the new generation of our culture and to showcase to the country and the world our soft power of unity in diversity.
Ministry of Defence
Indian Navy Helicopters Conduct Rescue & Relief Operations in Marooned Villages in Eluru
In response to a request received from the Eluru District Administration for Rescue and Relief Operations due to massive flooding of the Godavari River, the Indian Navy launched two medium-lift UH3H helicopters from INS Dega at Visakhapatnam on 14 Jul 22 for providing humanitarian assistance to the water-locked areas of Koida  in Velairpadu Mandal.
The helicopters air-dropped relief material including essential food items, medicines, milk, bread, etc to the marooned villagers. So far over 2000 kg of relief material has been delivered by the helicopters operating from Rajahmundry airport. The relief operation would continue on Friday.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
Dr Mansukh Mandaviya to inaugurate the Step-Up to End TB – World TB Day Summit on the occasion of World TB Day
Union Health Minister, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya will inaugurate the Step - Up to End TB- World TB Day Summit on the occasion of World TB Day  at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. Chief Guest at the Summit will be the Hon’ble Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Smt. Anandiben Patel, who will attend virtually. Leading discussions from the front, she will bring to light India’s accelerated pace of innovations and achievements for eliminating TB by 2025. The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar will also be present at the summit.
In March 2018, Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi chaired the Delhi End TB Summit. At the Summit, the Prime Minister gave the clarion call to End TB in India by 2025, five years ahead of the TB-related SDG targets of 2030.
The Ste-Up to End World TB Day Summit of 24th March 2022 is not only a follow-up to 2018 that gauges how far – and to what degree – India has progressed in its journey to TB elimination; it is also a reiteration of India’s TB commitments, and an effort to assemble the right minds as the country moves forward to meet its TB elimination objectives. The Summit will provide a forum to showcase the National TB Elimination Programme’s learnings and successes and frame it in a manner that inspires more forward-looking policies across infectious diseases, and not just TB alone. From vaccine development to the need for greater inter-departmental/ministerial and inter-state collaborations, the event aims to be an incubator for TB mitigation ideas that are disruptive and cognizant of a changing post-COVID world order.
At the event, Union Health Minister will award well-performing states and districts for achieving improved levels of TB elimination. A TB survivor will share her story and journey of overcoming this disease.
Featuring a meeting with State Health Ministers, the Hon’ble Health Minister will lead a session eliciting experience-sharing and commitments to intensify elimination efforts at the state and district level, with parallel sessions for states to present their best practices. The Summit will then lead into a session on findings from the to-be-released National TB Prevalence Survey results, with an eye for India’s action plan for achieving SDG elimination targets. To give an experiential look into the TB landscape, development partner organizations will present select exhibitions on innovative program practices, and give attendees a keen look into India’s future of becoming TB-free through a whole-of-society approach.
The event will further call for a Jan Andolan by eliciting commitments across Ministries and states, as well as setting the agenda for elected representatives and grassroots leaders to provide leadership at the last mile.
To be held over two days, this Summit will be attended by Health Ministers from various states, State Health officials and other key stakeholders working on the issue of TB elimination in India.
Prime Minister's Office
PM greets people of Himachal Pradesh on their Statehood Day
The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has greeted people of Himachal Pradesh on their Statehood Day.
"Best wishes to the people of Himachal Pradesh on their Statehood Day. May this state, the land of natural beauty and bravery, attain even more prosperity in the years to come. I pray that the people of this state are blessed with joy and good health," the Prime Minister said.
Ministry of Corporate Affairs
Bankrupt Companies after lockdown was imposed due to COVID-19 pandemic
As per information from Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India , details for the period from 01.04.2020 to 31.12.2020 of the number of companies declared bankrupt in the country after the lockdown was imposed due to COVID-19 pandemic is as under:
- 283 firms were admitted into corporate insolvency resolution process .
- 76 CIRPs ended in resolution, 128 CIRPs were closed due to withdrawal/appeal or settlement and 189 CIRPs ended in liquidation.
- 30 corporate persons were dissolved/ sold as a going concern/undergone compromise or arrangement under section 230 of Companies Act, 2013 under liquidation process. Further, 59 corporate persons were dissolved under voluntary liquidation process.
This was stated by Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
The state-wise details is as per Annexure - A.
Giving more details, the Minister said that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs  has raised the threshold of default under Section 4 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016  to Rs. 1 crore  vide Notification dated 24th March, 2020. This step was taken, inter alia, to assist and aid the functioning of Corporate Persons which might face default owing to the economic slowdown and unprecedented situation due to COVID19.
The Minister further stated that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code  Act, 2020 with effect from 5th June 2020 provides for insertion of Section 10A to the Code for temporary suspension of initiation of corporate insolvency resolution process  under Section 7, 9 and 10 of the Code for a period of six months or such further period not exceeding one year from 25th March 2020, as follows:.
- The benefit of the suspension is applicable to all those defaults of the corporate debtor that occur from 25th March, 2020 and till the end of period of suspension.
- Such defaults arising from 25th March, 2020 and till completion of suspension period will remain as nonest for the purpose of initiation of CIRP under the code as permanent carve out.
- Section 66 has been amended to provide protection to directors from personal liability for COVID period defaults.
- The time period under section 10A of the code has been extended vide notification no. SO-4638  dated 22nd December, 2020 for a further period of three months from 25th December, 2020.
Ministry of Science & Technology
Smart material which responds to light stimulus can harness solar energy for applications in soft robotics
Scientists have developed a smart material which responds to light stimulus easily by converting light into thermal energy. This can be helpful for harnessing solar energy for applications in soft robotics and micro-electromechanical systems  devices.
Many smart materials have successfully replicated stimuli-responsive behavior seen in abundance in nature like in Venus flytrap, pine cone, leaf of Mimosa pudica , or a sunflower always trying to face the Sun. Venus flytrap closes its ciliated leaves when prey is in the vicinity. Liquid crystal polymer networks  is one of such smart material. On application of heat, a uniformly aligned LCN film undergoes a reversible 2- or 3-dimensional shape change caused by the LC- liquid phase transition. By manipulating the average orientation of the rod-shaped LC molecules, various shape deformations like bending, curling, and even the formation of spiral ribbons have been attained in the past.
However, previously known devices needed additional layers to the photo-responding film to achieve bi-directional actuation—converting external energy to motion. As a solution to this problem, in a collaborative study, researchers at the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences , Bengaluru, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology , and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, have fabricated spatially splay-deformed  LCN films, by crosslinking a mixture of mono-functional and bi-functional liquid crystal mesogens . The two types of liquid crystal mesogens comprise one and two molecular units to absorb light, respectively, and incorporate near-infra-red -active dye into the system. The NIR laser beam impinging on the film causes a significant rise in the local temperature, and the ensuing order-disorder transition leads to a change in the macroscopic shape or, in other words, thermo-mechanical actuation. The research has been published in the journal Soft Matter.
Dr. Divya Jayoti  and Prof. S. Krishna Prasad opined that large, fast, and bidirectional actuation could be achieved by carefully tuning the film’s geometric and material parameters. Dr. Ratna Kumar Annabattula and Mr. Akhil R. Peeketi at IIT Madras performed modelling and simulation of the thermal actuation. A further extension of the work demonstrated that the films also perform exceptionally well under solar stimulation, suggesting that they could be employed to harness solar energy for applications in soft robotics and MEMS devices.
Figure:  Schematic representation of the experimental set-up to measure actuation:  NIR laser off and  NIR laser on. Snapshots of a 25 m NIR LCN thin film in cantilever configuration at various time steps as seen in experiments  and finite element simulations .
Publication Details: Divya Jayoti, Akhil Reddy Peeketi, Ratna Kumar Annabattula, and S. Krishna Prasad. "Dynamics of the photo-thermo-mechanical actuations in NIR-dye doped liquid crystal polymer networks." Soft Matter 
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D2SM00156J
Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers
‘There is no shortage of Drugs and Medicines in India’: Indian Pharma industry assures Shri Mansukh Mandaviya,Minister of State for Ministry of Shipping and Chemicals & Fertilizers
5th Task Force meeting on Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient  completed under the Chairmanship of Shri Mansukh Mandaviya
Keeping in view the country’s over dependence on import of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients , Government of India has constituted a Task Force on APIs under the chairmanship of Hon’ble Minister of State for Shipping  and Chemicals & Fertilizers Shri Mansukh Mandaviya to formulate a road map for the enhanced production of APIs in the country.
The 5th Meeting of the Task Force was held today. Several important issues were discussed regarding policy relaxations to small, medium and large API units and also simplification of the process for environment clearance for production and availability of medicines.
In the meeting, Shri Mansukh Mandaviya took stock of the situation of availability of drugs and medicines. The Industry Representatives has explained thoroughly to Shri Mansukh Mandaviya that they have enough drugs and medicines to deal with any contingency arising out of impact of CoronaVirus. They ensured that there will be no shortage of any Drugs, APIs and Medicines in the coming days in India.
During the meeting, the challenges faced by the Pharmaceutical Industry in obtaining Environment Clearance were also discussed. The representative of Ministry of Environment and Forest, Climate Change  has stated that steps are being taken to expedite Environment Clearances and also mentioned that recently MoEF&CC has modified the guidelines so that there is no need to obtain separate Environment Clearance, if the production of the Pharma unit is increased by 50%..
Vice President's Secretariat
Vice President calls for periodic screening of liver to detect high-risk patients
Inaugurates two-day medical at Upa-Rasthrapathi Bhavan
The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has stressed the importance of periodic screening of liver to detect people at high risk to liver diseases and take preventive action.
Inaugurating a two-day medical camp organized by the Vice President’s Secretariat in coordination with the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, New Delhi for all the staff, Delhi Police, Indo-Tibetan Border Police  security personnel and others working in Vice President’s residence, Shri Naidu pointed out that the liver was a crucial indicator for many diseases and emphasized the need for periodic screening for evaluating the liver’s condition.
The tests were conducted by a team led by renowned Hepatologist and Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Prof. Dr. Shiv Kumar Sarin.
During the two-day medical camp, tests are conducted to assess the liver’s health through screening by Fibro Scan, which measures the stiffness of the liver. Besides, blood tests were also conducted to check for Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. As part of the camp, a Mobile Liver Screening Van was also stationed at the medical camp.
The Mobile Liver Screening Van has so far screened the liver condition of 16,000 people in Delhi.
The Vice President and his spouse, Smt. Usha Naidu also underwent screening at the camp.